The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 3, September 1864 | Page 8

soon goes out of the door. If he be a manufacturer,
he does not allow his employés to help themselves to his stores and
material. He keeps, if he is a sensible man, his stock under lock and key,
and exacts a rigid accountability in their use. What is to prevent the
introduction of just such a system of accountability in the family
economy? 'Why,' say many housekeepers, 'we would not dare to lock
up our butter, and eggs, and flour, and sugar; we could not keep a girl a
day if we doled out our stores and held our servants responsible for

their economical use.' But, dear, doubting mesdames, your business
partner does this every day, and we should like to see the clerk or
apprentice who would even 'look black' at him for doing it. Perhaps
your business partner has to employ girls; if so, he has many Irish
among them; don't they stand his manner of doing business, without
grumbling? If they don't, they find another shop, that's all. Suppose this
case: A manufacturer of jewelry reasons as you do. He says: 'I cannot
keep my hands satisfied unless I give them free access to my stock of
gold, silver, and diamonds. I must throw open my tool drawers, so that
they can help themselves; and I must not ask how much material this or
that manufactured article has taken to make.' That man would have to
shut up shop in a year, even if he were not robbed of a dollar. Now, I
ask, is it fair to expect the husband to be orderly, systematic, and
business-like, and to superintend his business himself, while the wife
surrenders her legitimate affairs to the hands of ignorant and
irresponsible subordinates?
But the female partner of the shrewd man of business, or the plodding,
hardworking mechanic, may be inclined to say, 'I hate business,' and to
think it hard that she should be called upon to regulate her household
affairs upon any such severe and rigid rules. But, my dear madam, apart
from the clear fact that it is your duty to manage your household wisely
and prudently, which we have seen cannot be done without business
system, of which you must be the head, I assure you that such a system
is neither intricate nor vexatious. It does not necessarily entail upon you
the least participation in the actual labor of the family. It does not
absolutely require your personal presence at the scene of those labors,
although the woman who considers it beneath her dignity to go into her
kitchen, has no more business to undertake to keep house than the
master mechanic, who is too proud to enter his workshop, has to try to
carry on a shop. The absolutely essential thing is that yours should be
the directing and controlling mind, and that to you every one in your
employ should be held rigorously responsible. Now don't tell me that
such a system cannot be introduced with the present race of servants;
that you would be left half the time without anybody to do your work;
that until mistresses can combine to lay down rules for the better
regulation of domestic service, you must submit to the present evils.

You are not justified in assuming any of these things to be so, until you
have honestly and thoroughly tried the experiment in your single
household. To make such a system work, it is of course necessary that
your servants should be made to understand perfectly certain facts,
which you should take pains distinctly to announce to every new
domestic you engage. They are so plainly just and reasonable that the
most captious servant cannot take exception to them as a matter of
principle. It must depend upon your persevering spirit and firm hand
that they do not fail in practice. First, you should tell your servant that,
employing them at a stipulated rate of wages, to do certain, work, their
time belongs to you. Tell them that you insist upon their being
absolutely under your direction and control, that you expect to grant
them all reasonable privileges, but that they must be regarded as
privileges, and not as rights. Tell them distinctly that, if you prefer to
keep your stores under lock and key, it is not because you suspect their
integrity, but because you consider it as your business as a housekeeper
to know what is the cost of your living. Tell them that you are in the
habit of keeping an accurate account of your expenses, and that, in
consequence, it is necessary that you should know of every cent that is
expended. If these facts are clearly made known and consistently acted
upon, much of the trouble of managing servants is done away with.